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I've installed my Â£300 pounds worth of iron wound strings (26 of them). 4 broke. The winding, as Robert Wornum planned it, goes over the nut pin and just stops before the tuning pin. My maker did a fantastic job - everything just the right length. Should I have greased the nut pin? I can't help thinking the .8mm iron core was worked too hard pulling the wound section over the nut pin. Any ideas? Thanks.

Take a look at some of the photographs placed on this "Pinao World" and you will see where the winding on whraped striings is supposed to end. Also take a look on a site whoich sells piano parts and you could make a sketch or download the page so that you can learn the names of the various parts.

I've never seen windings above the agraffes. How old is the piano? Are the old strings in the photo originals?

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"Imagine it in all its primatic colorings, its counterpart in our souls - our souls that are great pianos whose strings, of honey and of steel, the divisions of the rainbow set twanging, loosing on the air great novels of adventure!" - William Carlos Williams

I can't imagine it was planned that way. The windings should stop before the pins. Only the core wire should contact the pin, and then go around the tuning pin. There are two ways to make this piano tuneable -

Sounds like an expensive proposition to purchase another full set of strings. Wouldn't it be worth a try to take them off and wind off some of the winding to the appropriate length? He might break a few more in the process, but once the surviving strings are all on, he can special order the ones that are missing. Worth a go?

I believe the friction was lower intially with the wood rubbed with graphite and not marred (and the pin as well.

burnishing and graphiting (hard pencil) may help a little, , may be inserting a small strip of "parchemin" (French) at the moment the string is pulled, to protect it, then pull it out, if well positionned may be it will pull out easily enough, if not, lower a little the tension.

the becket are not cut after installation, but the lenght evaluated and the becket installed flush in the pin. Others may have told you that yet.

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Professional of the profession. Foo Foo specialistI wish to add some kind and sensitive phrase but nothing comes to mind.!

Do yourself a favour: go to the Fincock piano museum in Kent where you can see many old, and some very old, pianos. I feel certain there will not be one where the winding of a string goes over the capo bar. Whilst there ask the way to the nearby "farm" where a Mr Richard Dain, a retired mechanical engineer, puts together pianos which have sound boards made of carbon fiber. Also go to U-tube and look for an item named " A Pianos Pin by Ronan O'Hora". He is playing Mozart's Sonata K570 II Adagio. The videos shows pins throughout the ages AND at the end your type of pins (old) in situ with the CORRECT arrangement !!!! I do hope you get it right as I'd like to hear how the instrument sounds.

I know one of the major restorers in this country - he's said it's unusual not to have the winding going round the pin but that is what Mr Wornum wanted.

The sounding length of the bottom iron wound G# (g#2 according to this website http://www.claviersbaroques.com/CBExpertHelmholtzNotation.htm ) is 70cm. The top iron wound one, g# (g#3), is 61.5cm. They are very high for wound strings - all cores are .8mm. That's why I initial thought to plain string at least the top group (I notice on Pleyel's Pianino he plain strings down to B (b2).

I remember an Ã‰rard grand with covered wire over the bridge (oversize bridge pins) and through the oversize agraffe with oversize holes I didn't check the interior configuration of the agraffe holes. Probably quite a broad curve. I didn't know it's age and the covered strings were all black with oxidisation so I didn't know what metal they were covered with. I only saw it briefly.

It was being tuned regularly and slightly above 440. . The tuner expressed no problems with it, this was in the days when we were tuning all kinds of weird and wonderful old pianos that had been tuned on contract for many generations. This was in the 1960's and it was all original then with no broken strings. It was just the core wire on the tuning pins. Must have been well over 100 years old then.

I have access to an old Broadwood square, 1804, I think. I know the bass strings are spiral wound with a 1/4" or so step to the spiral. I am sure the strings are wound as they go over the bridges but I will check.

I remember something about continuing the winding past the termination points reduced inharmonicity, perhaps our experts could address this matter.

This picture from another thread that has covered strings going over the bridge. It's quite common in ancient pianos. I'm still wondering how successful continuous winding like this is in reducing inharmonicity. Any experts on covered string inharmonicity?

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"Imagine it in all its primatic colorings, its counterpart in our souls - our souls that are great pianos whose strings, of honey and of steel, the divisions of the rainbow set twanging, loosing on the air great novels of adventure!" - William Carlos Williams